Apple

What I want to eat, is a donut.

What I have in the fridge, is some donuts my awesome wife bought for me to eat.

What I'm eating is an apple.

Because it's good for me, it's high in fibre and I just had my gall bladder removed. Which limits what I can eat, at least for a few weeks while I recover. May be able to go back to eating everything I used to (with moderation). May have permanent heavy restrictions. Probably somewhere in the middle.

Or I can yolo and eat whatever I want - so long as I'm near a bathroom!

Post surgery

Well, that was interesting.

The anesthesiologist didn't do the whole "count backwards from ten" thing, but last thing I remember was the mask being lowered over my face and being instructed to breathe deeply.

When I came to, I was in recovery and it took me a fair bit of time to reconnect the dots and work out where I was, and what happened to me. Felt like I lost a fight with a washing machine, while inside a bigger washing machine. Apparently the surgery was routine and didn't take too long, but it took me a bit longer than normal to recover from the anesthesia.

Luckily one of the nurses called my wife and let her know I was ok.

First meal post surgery was a salad with fish. Normally I'm not a fan of fish but since I hadn't eaten since Saturday dinner (about 48 hours) I found the salad quite tasty. I made sure to eat it slowly, didn't want to scarf it down and overload my digestive system.

The next part is to work out which meals I can eat. Without a gall bladder, if I eat stuff my body can't handle, apparently I'll get diahrrea. First two or three weeks I'll be the most delicate, after that my digestive system should have worked out how to get along without it.

Surgery tomorrow

Made it to 47 before needing surgery! Not a bad streak. Or at least any that I can remember, have been out patient a few times for minor things.

Currently in hospital waiting for gall bladder removal tomorrow (actually later today, it's about 2am). Should be fairly straightforward, it's a routine surgery. And looks like I shouldn't need to make too many adjustments to my diet.

Shoes!

Well, I'm an idiot. Or at least distracted.

Was getting changed and looked around and couldn't find my shoes. Still down south in temporary accommodation. Keep the door locked by habit, was locked when I got back in. Knew for a fact I had been wearing them this morning.

No sign of them! Not in the wardrobe, not under the bed, not under my bag, not in a drawer. It's a small room, so not many places to hide. Had me completely stumped for a good five minutes.

They were on my feet. I'd already put them on.

Still cold

Ugh, forgot how much the cold sucks.

Can't wait to get back to the warmth up north. Can't even exercise properly without everything hurting. Especially hands and nose due to the cold wind. Give me high heat and high humidity!

And down south again

Back at the old stomping ground and the most obvious thing - it's cold! Don't miss that.

Long day of travel, red eye flight and didn't get any rest due to a plus size on one side taking up a quarter of my seat, a plaguebearer on the other side coughing up a lung and a gang of babies carrying on.

Oh well, shouldn't be here too long, hopefully.

Blown tyre

 Whoops, had the first flat tyre in a long time today.

And it was right proper blown - big chunk out of the sidewall, off the rim and everything. None of this slow leak and looks flat nonsense! Luckily I was already at work when it happened, so was able to change it there instead of on the side of the road.

Even better - the spare worked! Fingers crossed it holds, these are all old tyres with the rubber worn and on the way out. And at $400 a pop (no pun intended) I can't afford to replace the tyres yet. Have another old spare on rim already which I was able to put onto the car so already have an emergency spare - but it has some pretty deep gouges on the tread, so i'm pretty sure it'll work as an emergency spare to get me back to the house and not much more after that.

Fingers crossed!

So tired

 Just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

All time, money, energy and effort is going in to getting the new place up to a standard where it can be managed easily. It's getting there, it just takes time. And a lot of effort. Made loads of progress, we've come a long way from where we were the day we moved in. And sorted a lot of the chaos!

But a bit more money would have helped. Could have had all our issues sorted and space for the stuff we have two years ago - if we just had an extra hundred thousand. Or two!

Oh well, just have to work with what we have.

But damn I'm tired....

Amber is alive?!?!

 Holy crap!

My brother's cat, which was already really old went missing. I posted about her back in 2021 when she disappeared after a surgery.

Today we had a call saying she'd been found! Can't believe she managed to survive so long out on her own in the bush. The vet called me as I was still down as an alternate contact, they hadn't been able to get hold of him. Apparently she's in a pretty poor state, fingers crossed.

Edit: my brother went to the vet, and she recognised him. She had multiple organs failing, very under weight and had several injuries. He did the right thing and chose to have her put down. She was a fighter and lived to almost 18 years I think. A very sad end, to have found her again after so many years lost only to have to let her go again. But it was for the best, it would have been a long, hard road to try and get her back to good health with little chance of success. It would have prolonged her suffering for no real gain.

At least when she closed her eyes, she was in the arms of a loved one and not alone in the street or surrounded by strangers.

Heart is heavy with pain and loss. Good bye Amber.

Bobito is at rest

 After just over 17 years, Bobito has passed away.

He was my brothers cat, born 18 Sep 2008 to a stray cat that was hanging around our house at the time. We adopted her, Amber (she died around 2021), she started hanging around the house some time in August of 2008 (I think I made a post on this blog about her); she had a litter of kittens not long after she started hanging around.

Bobito was the runt of the litter, a wee little tiny kitty. He kept getting up to mischief in the shed where Amber lived with her kittens. My brother saved him a few times when he got stuck in various places.

When they were a few weeks old, we gave away most of the kittens, but my bro couldn't bear to part with Bobito. So we kept him and he became his familiar. Amber also became a family cat.

We moved, they came with us. I got married and moved out, the two cats stayed with him.

And now after nearly two decades, Bobito has closed his eyes for the last time.

Rest young man, you will be missed.

My bro will be heartbroken, no more furry warmth by his side. No more eager eyes watching him get home from work. No more angry meows demanding food.